Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman #4: Bloodsport!

Yeah, I’m starting Superman Month a little late. At least I pretty much know what I’ll be talking about this time. First up, I’m heading back to the beginning of the Post-Crisis universe. This is more or less my era of Superman. Even though I started to get into comics in the mid-2000’s, I would peruse this era a bit. Today’s issue is Superman #4 from April 1987. We got John Byrne writing and on pencils, Karl Kesel on inks, John Costanza on letters, and Anthony Colin on the colors. One reason I picked this one out was because of the villain, Bloodsport, will be appearing in the next Suicide Squad movie. By the way, that took me for a surprise. So, what carnage did the first Bloodsport get up to?

Superman #4

Writer and Pencils: John Byrne

Inks: Karl Kesel

Colors: Anthony Colin

Letters: John Costanza

Editors: Andrew Helfer and Mike Carlin

“Bloodsport!”

The issue starts out with Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane out on a lunch date. Things go downhill when a gun-crazed lunatic named Bloodsport shoots up the restaurant they’re in. Jim and Lucy make it out, but most of the patrons weren’t so lucky. Superman finds that out as he sees the carnage. After Captain Maggie Sawyer fills him in, Superman’s able to use his infrared vision to track Bloodsport at a bowling alley. After a standoff, Superman ends up getting shot with a bullet made of Kryptonite. Bloodsport was able to materialize the gun from air. Jimmy followed Superman and is able to keep Bloodsport from finishing Superman off. Unfortunately, Bloodsport escapes.

This was a pretty nuts scene. This and that opening scene were probably hardcore for 1986.

Jimmy gets Superman to a hospital, and the doctors get the bullet out. Even though this leaves Clark weakened, he’s determined to find Bloodsport and knows where the kryptonite came from. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is chiding out a doctor about Robert DuBois, aka Bloodsport. It turns out he was part of a scheme Luthor had, and they were using his fixations on the Vietnam war to fuel him.. Luthor wasn’t planning on the guy killing civilians, so he plans to have Bloodsport terminated.

The NRA's biggest dream probably.

Elsewhere, Bloodsport is causing a stir, but Superman (who’s still weakened) tries to stop him. Luckily, Luthor’s security team is trying to take him down too. When Superman learns how Bloodsport is able to materialize weapons, he somehow messes with the device Bloodsport uses and is able to subdue him. Bloodsport tries to use his device as a bomb, but Jimmy pulls a trump card by bringing BLoodsport’s brother, Michael DuBois to the site. It turns out that Michael was the one who went to Vietnam, not Robert. When Michael came back with all his limbs amputated, this drove Robert nuts since he dodged the draft. In the end, Michael gets Bloodsport to stop his rampage.

OPINION

I thought this issue was pretty nice for the most part. As a one-off villain (the guy barely showed up in the comics after this), Bloodsport wasn’t too bad. He was basically an evil version of John Rambo. We don’t get too many of the supporting cast showing up here other than Jimmy and a one-page cameo from Luthor. That’s fine for the most part because I liked that Jimmy was able to do more than get into trouble. He saves Superman at a crucial moment and figures out what Bloodsport was all about.

"Yes, Clark! Stand there and get shot by a bullet you don't know about!"

The artwork was good as usual. Byrne was at his best during this decade and it shows here. Superman looks cool and in charge. Bloodsport looks okay for the most part. The action hits in the best way, and the smaller moments were pretty nice. I got no complaints on the artwork overall. As for things I didn’t like, I did think the ending was too rushed. After Jimmy pulls his wild card, that’s all she wrote. I remember that Byrne was known for getting things wrapped up in a page or two, but this was a bit much. Other than that and a couple of nitpicks, this was nice.

In the end, this was a nice intro for a new villain. While Bloodsport barely stuck around, at least he put a nice dent in with that Kryptonite bullet. Next time, it’s time to hit something pretty current. Yeah, I’m looking BMB’s turn at revealing the identity. I’ll have some words about this and the other time this happened, but that’ll be for another post. For now, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.